I’m almost a full week late with this and I feel really guilty about it. Between the big kid activities, mom friend dates and photography stuff Linc has been a little neglected. Not like, sitting in dirty diapers all day and not fed enough neglected. Just real nap schedule and therefore no happy, peaceful daylight hours at home to take pictures neglected. I think he’ll survive.

If anything is going to kill him it’s gravity. He refuses to accept that flinging himself off of things or out of my arms could end poorly and has the bumps on his head to show for it. He’s started trying to climb UP things as well, so I’m sure the bruises will get worse before they get better. I am trying very hard to be patient with him as he learns how to human but I’m looking forward to the day when he stops the flinging.

Despite this update being late he hasn’t had his 9 month check up yet so I’m not sure how big he actually is, so let’s just go with “big”. He’s at least as heavy as some of his 18 month old baby friends and almost as tall too. Thank God I’m obsessed with the baby wearing stuff – I can work out my back and core and legs without making my wrists super sore. I always forget I have such weak wrists until the baby needs to be held for an hour.

There hasn’t been a lot of sleeping through the night for the last month. Or sleeping during the day for that matter. He’s obviously hitting a ton of milestones right now so I’m not surprised…but I am tired. Co-sleeping is keeping me from being too exhausted to function but sleeping with a baby attached to you is just not the same as sleeping alone. And waking up 4 times a night is still waking up, even if it’s only long enough to roll over. My current favorite fantasy involves a huge glass of wine, some Tylenol PM and sleeping for 18 hours alone in a huge soft bed.

But waking up next to my smiley, cuddly baby is only going to happen for a little while longer so I’ll take it while I can.

Linc’s current likes include swinging, baths, cats, dogs, Caroline, Evan, tickles, being upside down, getting dirty, grass, rocks, sand, bare feet, standing, crawling, cruising, bouncing, pushing, being carried, being worn, the front porch, people who smile at him, being nosey, nursing, clawing my face, pulling my hair,

Dislikes are mommy being out of sight, mommy putting him down when he doesn’t feel like being down, mommy taking a shower, not getting nursies fast enough and falling on his head.

We will title this month’s photos: Can’t Hold Him Down

9 Month Milestones (from Caroline’s 9 month post)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Stands while holding onto something – Very good at standing and has started letting go. Sometimes when I put him down I forget and just leave him standing in the middle of the room.
Jabbers or combines syllables – He definitely thinks we’re having conversations.
Understands object permanence – Ah yes, the “never pee alone” stage.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Cruises while holding onto furniture – He’s an excellent cruiser. He also uses a couple of walkers and the chairs to the kid-sized table to get places the permanent furniture doesn’t connect to.
Drinks from a sippy cup – Eh. I give him some water sometimes, he’s mostly uninterested.
Eats with fingers – He can definitely get food into his face with his hands.
Bangs objects together – I’m not actually sure I’ve seen him do that. There go my hopes he’s a prodigy on the cymbals.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Plays patty-cake and peek-a-boo – He doesn’t have that much control over his hands yet.
Says “mama” or “dada” to the correct parent – No, he still mostly refers to me with a high pitched screeching.

I asked my mom friends last week if they thought I should be concerned about Linc not rolling over or bearing weight on his legs yet. They told me no, of course not, all babies are different and they develop at different rates, I’m sure he’ll roll over soon, their baby never rolled over and now look at her walking! That’s basically the Lord’s Prayer of parenting – I can recite it from memory but don’t often pay attention to what the words actually mean. It’s comfortingly familiar though, to hear it from people I know and trust.

Right after that Linc decided his new favorite thing is bearing weight on his legs, so at least half of my worrying was for nothing. I’m pretty sure one of these days I’m going to set him on the floor, leave the room, and come back in to find he’s just gotten up and walked away.

I’m a few days late with this update, not because I forgot it but because I didn’t want to even LOOK at the 5 month sticker a single second earlier than I had to. I cannot believe it’s already been 5 months with Lincoln here in our lives. He’s the first baby where I haven’t felt any desire for time to go faster. I am trying to stay completely focused on enjoying him right now, as he is, and not rushing anything.

It helps that he sleeps. I would be praying him to get bigger and older and thinking about night weaning and freaking out over how exhausted I was if he wasn’t already letting me sleep 7 hours a night. Best baby in the world. Or at least right now, since he’s taking a nice extended afternoon nap.

Likes include smiling, snuggles, people, singing, talking about cooking shows, being held, standing, bath time, chewing on things, his feet, my feet, mirrors, nursing, watching people eat, having his picture taken, the swing, the rock-n-play, his brother, his sister and the cat.

Dislikes include loud noises too close to his face, missing nap time, teething and having boogers removed from his nose/face in any way.

/

5 Month Milestones (originally from BabyCenter, now from Caroline’s 5 month post)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Distinguishes between bold colors – Yeah, sure. How the hell am I supposed to know?
Plays with his hands and feet – Yes, with cartoon-baby-levels of cuteness.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Recognizes own name – He did this very clearly yesterday and I was like BOOM! MILESTONE MOMENT!!
Turns toward new sounds – Yes, he’s very nosy.
Rolls over in both directions – Still no rolling. In either direction. He doesn’t even look like he wants to.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Sits momentarily without support – Yes. He’s going to be sitting independently way before he’s rolling.
Mouths objects – Nomming is his favorite hobby
Separation anxiety may begin – A little. He doesn’t like it when everyone leaves the room, but he doesn’t mind new people or strangers.

Poor third baby got almost no new stuff. I literally got his crib yesterday, one day after his 8 week birthday. It’s not even out of the box yet.

So far Linc doesn’t seem to mind. He just hangs out and smiles and eats and sleeps. Ok, and sometimes he screams his head off, but that can usually be quickly fixed with a clean diaper and a snack. Then he’s back to smiling.

And what goes better with an adorable chubby baby than an adorable baby outfit?

My favorite people over at Baby Boden sent Linc and me one of their new Baby Boden gift sets to celebrate becoming the newest ginger bebeh. They come in sizes from newborn up to 6-9 months, include a gift box, jammies, hat, bib and blanket, and would be perfect for a baby shower…or as a special surprise for a new mom who wasn’t really expecting much for her third child :)

This is why Boden is one of my favorites: how cute is all this stuff they sent?

The fabric is SUPER soft and the blanket is very generously sized. But the best part might be the hat.

From now until October 12th you can take 15% off your Boden order using the code BABY.

Would you like a chance to win a Baby Boden gift set for you or to give to your favorite new or expecting mama? Just leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite Baby Boden item. 

Giveaway is open to those with a US shipping address and winner may select the Baby Boden gift set of their choice. Winner will be chosen from eligible comments using Random.org in 2 weeks. 

This is a sponsored post on behalf of Wayfair as part of their Homemakers program. All opinions are my own. 

We watch a LOT of HGTV. My children have favorite HGTV shows (Evan likes Love It or List It, while Caroline prefers House Hunters). And if you’ve watched even 10 minutes of HGTV you’re heard that song Wayfair uses in their commercials and right now you are cursing me for getting it stuck in your head AGAIN. Rest assured I share your pain.

Now that Baby Linc is no longer a surprise baby, I can finally finish the nursery. I moved the older kids in together to give him a room – I might as well make it a NICE room. I am attempting to prevent Third Child Why Aren’t There Any Pictures Of Me And Why Did I Sleep In A Drawer Syndrome. (Current status: medium. He has a birth story but owns no socks)  So far I’ve gone from this…

To this:

(more…)

Lincoln Scott Davis
July 23, 2014
12:52 am
9 lbs, 21.5 inches

(Doesn’t that baby look like the baby model that came with the announcement? THAT’S MY ACTUAL BABY.)

Birth story disclaimer: It’s a birth story, read at your own risk. Also looooong.

I made it 6 days past my due date with my “oh you’ll definitely go early” baby, which was the longest 6 days of my life. It was actually more like the longest 3 weeks of my life, since I was thinking I was about to pop ANY SECOND since I hit 38 weeks. Literally every time I left the house I planned in my head what I would do when (not if) my water broke. I had started psyching myself up for having a baby in the car or in my bathroom or at Target because obviously once my water broke the baby would basically fall out, right? I mean, I was huge. There was a ton of water. It was my 3rd baby and things are supposed to go faster.

NOT QUITE. I had an induction scheduled and then canceled because it was “elective” and the maternity floor was too full. Luckily E’s schedule was pushed back a few days (again) so I wasn’t AS panicked but I was still HUGELY PREGNANT. People who are hugely pregnant don’t like to be told they have to remain hugely pregnant indefinitely.

But I did get the one thing I wanted: to experience my water breaking spontaneously, like in a movie. Oh no, my water broke! Must be time to head to the hospital! Look at that adorable little puddle!

LIES! All lies. I don’t recommend it.

On Tuesday morning I woke up to a gush and thought “Oh! So that’s what that feels like!” And then I sat up and water poured out of me like a river and thought “Oh man, this is kind of unpleasant.” And then I shoved the towel I was keeping next to the bed between my legs and tried to waddle to the bathroom, still leaking everywhere but now with contractions on top of it and thought “Nope nope nope nope”. I ended up using every spare towel we had to half-heartedly clean up fluid before taking a shower and just hoping most of it was done draining out. (It wasn’t. I went to the hospital with a hand towel in my pants. I threw it away.) If it had happened in public you wouldn’t be reading this right now because I would have willed the earth to open up and swallow me whole.

Once we got to the hospital nothing happened. I had a non-stress test scheduled for that morning anyway, so they put me on the monitors. I should have stayed home longer so I could eat and walk around and lie on my couch, but again, I was pretty much expecting the baby to FALL OUT so when we got there and I was at 2 cm I was both shocked and disappointed. Since my water was broken (they didn’t even check, the doctor said “Yeah, you had so much water if you said it broke I BELIEVE YOU”) they did want to keep me though. so I tried to get comfortable and just enjoy the last few hours with my inside baby.

It was pretty boring. E and I played cribbage, just like we did when I was in labor with Evan. He beat me every time, just like when I was in labor with Evan. By the afternoon I was still mostly just sitting there, contracting but not super painfully, and they asked if I wanted to start pitocin. I told them that was fine but I would need the matching epidural. The very nice anesthesiologist came and stuck me with needles and then the magic epidural made me feel totally drunk and I was MUCH HAPPIER. It was exactly the right amount of numb, where I can move my legs and feet but feel no pain. I think I updated Facebook and made a bunch of jokes. It’s sort of a blur.

For a while (OMINOUS DUM-DUM-DUM). Now that baby didn’t have a swimming pool to play in, he started playing with the cord instead and every couple of contractions the monitor would register a deceleration in his heart rate. A few times it dipped really low and I got a rush of nurses in to rearrange me and ask me to roll on one side or another. It was sort of stressful on everyone and I started to get pretty worried I’d end up with an emergency c-section, although when I mentioned that to my nurse she said I wasn’t even allowed to THINK that word.

They eventually found a spot on my right side where the baby’s heart was happy but it meant that my epi started to wear off on the left. A lady from anesthesiology came and hung a new bottle and gave me a bump, but warned us lying on one side meant the other side might always get less medicine. My left side hurt more. And more. And more. AND THEN A LOT REALLY A LOT IT REALLY REALLY HURT. Then the baby’s heart rate deceled again and they made me get up on my knees and hang over the bed and I realized I wasn’t numb AT ALL on the left and it was wearing off on the right and my epidural had officially failed and OMG HOW DO PEOPLE EVEN DO THIS WITHOUT MEDS?!?!?!

No, for real, it sucked. Snaps for anyone who does even 5 minutes of natural/pitocin labor.

E fed me a delicious Italian ice to distract me, but when I started to actually cry during a contraction my nurse decided to page anesthesiology again. The first nice doctor who put the epi in came up to check on it. He ripped all the tape off my back to check the needle and was getting ready to give me another bump when I heard him say “The pump isn’t on.”

YOU GUYS. THEY TURNED OFF MY EPIDURAL. The woman who hung up the new bottle NEVER TURNED IT ON, so I hadn’t had any meds in HOURS. And my pitocin was at a 16 (on a scale of 2 being “meh” and 20 being “WARNING: BABY MAY SHOOT OUT LIKE A CANON BALL”). They turned the pump back on. Literally 5 minutes later I was fine again.

I have no sense of time from when the epidural stopped working until I started thinking “Hey, there’s that pushy-feeling! I should get the nurse!” but it was probably around 11:30 pm when the doctor came in to check me. Unfortunately, my giant baby refused to move down into my pelvis AT ALL, so I was at -1 and only 9cm.  It looked like I was still HOURS away from delivering.

Not that much later I was still feeling REALLY REALLY PUSHY. It also sort of hurt and I could feeling the burning ring-of-fire thing people describe so I told the nurse again I was probably about to have a baby. She called the doctor back to check again…and again I was at -1 and not fully dialated. I was the laboring woman who cried wolf, but no matter WHAT the doctor said I know what pushing feels like. I KNOW. So when I got the pushy feeling I might have pushed a little.

Me to nurse: It still feels like I should push.
Nurse: Don’t push yet.
Me to nurse (totally pushing): Ok, I won’t. But it really feels like I want to.
Nurse: If you’re not fully dialated your cervix can get all swollen and labor can be harder.
Me to nurse: Right, of course, I know. I’m not pushing. (MORE PUSHING)

Literally FIVE MINUTES after the doctor said I was at -1 I grabbed my nurse and said very seriously “LOOK, I’M ABOUT TO HAVE THIS BABY. FOR REAL. CHECK ME.” So she called the doctor back.

Guess who was right? I went from a -1 to a +3 in less than 5 minutes. My secret pushing worked (or, you know, just like my other 2 births when I get to the end babies come flying out of me). Luckily my doctor was aware of my short pushing history and everyone moved fast.

Then everyone tried to tell me how to push and I ignored them because y’all, I got this part. Four pushes later I had a baby. Then E said “IT’S A BOY” and my only response was “…..REALLY?!” Then they gave me my baby boy and I was like “Of course you’re a boy, I knew that. I know you!”

I really love that part at the end when you get a baby.

And now I’m going to brag a little bit about maybe the weirdest thing anyone has ever bragged about – they took the baby to weigh him and said “Whoa, NINE POUNDS” and then the doctor (assistant doctor? midwife in training? Whatever, the chick that caught my baby under my doctor’s supervision) said “You didn’t tear at all! No stitches!” I’m pretty proud of my no stitches. I got up to pee like 10 minutes after I gave birth and it didn’t hurt.

E went and got the kids and my mom in the morning so they could meet their new brother. They were both excited…for about 2 minutes. Evan got bored because he didn’t do anything and Caroline just wanted to be the center of attention. She did a lot of dancing.

The next day I entertained myself by taking pictures until we got to go home. For a minute.

Just like his brother, Baby Linc ended up a little bit jaundiced. I dragged him all over creation trying to get blood work done on Saturday only to end up back in the hospital overnight. I’m not going to lie, that really sucked. I had a bad night staring at my baby under the lights (he loved them) and ended up asking the nursery to watch him so I could get a little sleep. It’s easier to mentally beat myself up for not doing MORE to force my newborn to eat and poop when I’m not quite so tired.

But his numbers came up fast and now we’re home for good (fingers crossed).

And that is the LONGEST POST I’VE WRITTEN IN YEARS. If you finished it I probably owe you $14 and a drink for the time it took out of your life. Seriously, I can’t even bring myself to read it again for typos. But I had a baby 6 days ago so my brain is fried anyway. TOTALLY worth it.